CAMARILLO, CA - APRIL 23: Shoe creators Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan attend the 'Better Call Saul' meet and greet/autograph signing in support of 'FiFi' on April 23, 2017 in Camarillo, California. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for AMC)
Better Call Saul odds and ends: Inside Lantern + interviews the crew
Go Inside the Better Call Saul season finale and hear from Co-Creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, as well as the episode’s writer Gennifer Hutchison!
With Better Call Saul’s season three finale airing earlier this week, AMC has released its usual staple of extras. With that weekly tradition, also comes our own where we recap some of this week’s Better Call Saul odds and ends. In addition to going inside the finale, we’ll also check out some Q&As with members of the Better Call Saul crew. Specifically Co-Creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould as well as finale writer Gennifer Hutchison.
Inside Lantern
This week’s “Inside the Episode” feature includes appearances from several members of the Better Call Saul cast and crew. Specifically, episode writer Gennifer Hutchison and Co-Creator Peter Gould speak for the crew, while Bob Odenkirk and Michael McKean represent the cast. Throughout the video they speak on a number of topics, but Jimmy’s two most important relationships (Chuck and Kim) are most heavily featured. Personally, it was great to go in-depth with Jimmy and Chuck’s final scene together, as Gould says “I don’t think Jimmy is ever gonna forget a word of the conversation.”
Nacho Varga (Michael Mando) and Hector “Tio” Salamanca (Mark Margolis) in Episode 8 Photo by Michele K. Short/Sony Pictures Television/AMC
Gilligan/Gould Q&A
For the first, and obviously last, time this season, the shows creators spoke with the Better Call Saul Insider Blog. Gilligan and Gould went over topics both big picture and character specific. While Better Call Saul has yet to be officially renewed for a fourth season, both Gilligan and Gould spoke on the show’s future. However, what I found most interesting was their comparison of Better Call Saul’s finales to Breaking Bad’s.
Q: The last couple of seasons have ended with big cliff-hangers that just scream for resolution – something you didn’t always do on Breaking Bad. Why has the story broken that way more on Better Call Saul?
Peter Gould: I don’t think there’s a big plan behind it. I think maybe you’re seeing a little bit of confidence. The endings of Breaking Bad seasons always seemed very provocative to me. There was that cliff-hanger when Hank saw the Leaves of Grass in the White’s house bathroom. That was a pretty strong cliff-hanger, so you could argue that maybe we just have more cliff-hangers as we go along.
Vince Gilligan: But we knew that year when Hank found Leaves of Grass that we were going to have a subsequent eight episodes! The season of Breaking Bad that could have – and a lot of people told us this – arguably worked as a series finale was the end of Season 4. Interestingly enough, that was the season where we had the least confidence that we would get any more episode orders. That was one of the least cliffhanger-y season-enders because we didn’t know if we would ever get to do this again. Like Peter said, maybe we have a little more confidence now, 11 years into the Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul universe. As writers, you go where the story takes you and this is where it took us this season.
Check out the full interview here.
Hutchison Q&A
Staying behind the camera, in their second interview, the Insider’s Blog spoke to Lantern’s writer, Gennifer Hutchinson. Hutchinson spoke on a number of topics including the future between Nach and Gus, as well as the lack of Mike in the season finale. Additionally, she discussed this being her freshman effort in writing finales (personally, I think she aced it):
Q: Between Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, this was your first time writing a season finale. What’s the hardest part of that assignment? What’s your favorite aspect of it?
A: The hardest part is the general feeling of pressure to deliver. Obviously, we want every episode to be as good as it can be, but premieres and finales always have that special air because you’re either setting up your entire season or you’re trying to wind up your whole season and also set up the possibility of a next season. So, you can get in your head a little bit with wanting to make sure everything is perfect, but, luckily, I work on a show where there’s so much support from Peter [Gould] and Vince [Gilligan] and the writers, and everybody’s working together to make the best episode possible. The best part about writing a finale is you do get to do so many cool and huge story things, like wrapping up character arcs for the season or having big moments. The finale has some huge things that happen, so getting to play with those is really fun.
Check out the full interview here.
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 09: Variety Executive Editor TV Debra Birnbaum, Supervising Producer Better Call Saul Gennifer Hutchison, Creator and Executive Producer Better Call Saul Vince Gilligan, Creator and Executive Producer Better Call Saul Peter Gould, Co-Executive Producer Thomas Schnauz and Better Call Saul Staff Writer Gordon Smith attend TUNE IN: Variety’s TV Summit at the Four Seasons Hotel on June 9, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Variety)
